The Laws

The Philosophy of Cyprianism revolves around the concept of seven laws. These laws are said to govern everything in the universe, at least in a Poetic and Philosophical sense. Students of esoteric traditions may find resonance between these seven laws and many of the other sets of seven laws in hermetic study.

I. The Current

The First Law of Cyprianism is this: The Current Is. She is the Great Architecture of the Universe and the resonating language of Life.

The underlying Poetic architecture of the universe Is. It is pervasive and present for those that wish to resonate with It. The Current allows you to tap into and resonate with creative energy that has been present throughout all creation of masterpieces through time.

The Current is a palpable, albeit often too subtle, energy that exists in our physical, three dimensional, known experience. It does not often run in a straight path. Having no clear edges, It is rarely distinguishable from the energy around It that is “not Current”. Much of It remains virtually unchanged throughout history while much of It is made new each second. It has an origin, but that origin is not necessary, or even often related, to Its existence.

But on the “spiritual level” – that level where we connect with It, dip a finger in, or drown ourselves fully – Its power can be harnessed in real, tangible ways to enrich our lives and the lives of those we draw to It.

Three analogies that help explain the Current are the use of that word within the concepts of water, electricity and time:

Water

The concept of a current as it relates to water – oceans, rivers – is pretty easy to understand. Within bodies of water there is often moving portions of that body that move either at a different speed or different direction than the water around it … or both. It is not possible to accurately delineate the current from the water around it that is not the current. But when the body of water as a whole is taken into account, a movement within the movement is physically detectable and called a current.

There are currents that have remained basically unchanged, in regards to path and speed, for centuries and currents that dramatically change on a daily basis. There are places where currents do not exist today, but surely will tomorrow. In oceans, currents may have an origin or beginning, but they do not originate from a place that is “not water” making that beginning inseparable from the water around it that is “not current”. This makes the origin a pretty esoteric concept indeed; almost magical.

Water currents can even gust, changing speeds from one second to the next. They are also often moving at differing speeds at one point in their path than they are at others. And rarely, if ever, does a current move in a straight line. Their paths can be as varied as every other element of their character.

There are also currents which collide and commingle, tangentially touching another current or running right through it. Do the particles of water leave one current for the other or go through unchanged in their charge, fiercely loyal to their original current? It is almost impossible to say. And since matter is finite and water has existed for epochs, surely every particle of water has history with dozens, thousands of currents and time when it rested outside of a current in slothful torpor.

This is how it is with our Current. Cultures both religious and non-religious have expressed beliefs in an underlying energy of the universe. Some call it God, some the Universal Soul, some spirit and for some simply energy. For Cyprians – the Current.

As for the Current being God in the sense that most of us recognize that concept: it is not so. The Current did not create the universe, but It is inextricable from it. It is the Architecture rather than the Architect. The Current informs, connects, moves, makes creation – real creation – possible. Though it is possible to live life entirely without ever getting wet with the Current, life as a shell is remarkably sad indeed.

Electricity

We also easily understand current in relation to electricity, at least on some level. For most of us, the moving of electrically charged particles by means of conductivity might as well be magic, and we take its use for granted.

Unlike the currents of water, electric currents typically move in one direction or another and only along lines of conductivity. However, communication between distant points can be nearly instantaneous with the help of a current. And under the right circumstances, a current can be conducted at great speeds along multiple lines connecting multiple places.

Electrical current gives energy and power to the things tuned to use it. The energy conducted electrically can even be changed to other types of energy. A current running from a power plant, into your house can be converted to visible light or even heat.

Two currents can come close enough to transfer energy without even touching, as in a spark jumping a gap. And one line of conductivity can transfer the power of a current to another line of conductivity, or several, simply by touching it.

This is how the Current relates us to other humans, at least those who are connected as well. When we allow ourselves to become conduits, conductors, we affect change and energize others. In many cases, we are even able to affect people around us that have no connection to the Current, often giving them a glimpse of the resonance they lack without our presence.

Time

The third analogous explanation of the Current is time. Obviously, based on what we discussed above in both water and electricity, it can now be understood that the Current, and thus time, is not necessarily linear – though It can be. To understand It as a simple linear process is indeed a very immature understanding of time.

Right now, sitting where you are, you can access the past simply by recalling a memory. Are you not now experiencing that moment in many of the same ways you did when it actually happened to you? Can you not savor some of the very same things you savored at the time? If time were only linear, this would indeed be time travel, at least in a sense.

Instead, the Current remains squarely now, in the present, allowing Itself by means of Its own non-linear “map” to access the “presents” not experienced by you as well as the past and in many ways the future. Knowledge is in fact finite and all of it already exists, waiting to be accessed. In this way the present easily references the future.

But, in order to fully understand the tendrils of time you must live in the present, the moment you are in. This is what the Cyprians call Gaiety, being a virtuoso of moments. By living right now you can have a healthy outlook on the past and the future.

II. The Accord

The Second Law of Cyprianism is this: As above, so below.

The scale of the universe is made up of mirrors. The small mirrors the large. The large mirrors the infinite. This applies to all things.

One must understand this accord to capture Beauty in your Life and work. You cannot paint flesh without an understanding of the muscles and blood vessels beneath and the thoughts and dreams of the figure above. You cannot properly render an apple without an idea of what it is made of and its part in the entire universe. Even an abstract is made masterful with this understanding.

III. Resonance

The Third Law of Cyprianism is this: Nothing is still. Everything moves, cycles, vibrates, orbits.

Consider the still life. These images are alive because they do not capture one sliver of time, as would a photograph of the same subject. While you are painting the flower it continues its pesky business of wilting. The porcelain bowl may appear to sit still, but the light acting on it is in constant change, so that each stroke of paint you lay in captures a different moment than the one before.

IV. Mutuality

The Fourth Law of Cyprianism is this: Perceived opposites are but the same thing, only varying by degree. For every thing, there is a mutual other – an opposite, which is part of it also.

What we perceive as opposites are parts of the same thing, only varying by degree. A dancer knows well that the leap and the landing are not opposites, but integral parts of each other. The poet knows that the space between the words are as important as the words themselves. They are not opposites. The space, the line break, each is word, only varying by the degree that they are word at its most silent. The sculptor that does not understand that what he has chiseled away and left on the floor is exactly what has created the piece before him is no sculptor at all. The painter understands that painting in the dark portions requires working with the same colors that created the light. More than the others, he may know this Law best.

V. Rhythm

The Fifth Law of Cyprianism is this: All things have a pulse, a rhythm.

Closely tethered to the Law of Resonance is the idea that all things have a pulse and rhythm. Not only is nothing still, but it all pulses and vibrates in a cadence.

Why do masterpieces stand the test of time? Because they are fully present in their moment in the cadence of time. This allows them to resonate throughout history, the present, even the future in all directions. There is a pulse to each of all things and the masters know how to become one with it.

VI. The Source

The Sixth Law of Cyprianism is this: Every cause has its effect, every effect has its cause.

Everything is caused by something else. For every action and everything that exists there is a cause and an effect. This should lead you to be intentional. Know why you are doing a thing, even if the thing does not end up how you envisioned it. Nothing happens out of nothing. There is always a reason. Master the reasons and master the results. Mere chance did not create grandeur.

VII. Gender

The Seventh Law of Cyprianism is this: Every thing, every action, expresses gender – Masculine and/or Feminine. The Path of Areté leads to a harmony of gender.

There is a Masculine and/or Feminine nature to everything. Every thing, every idea, every impulse expresses itself somewhere on a continuum from Masculine to Feminine. This does not mean an actual sexual gender, but the expression of gender in a sense that lies beyond. The ultimate goal of Areté is a harmonizing of gender.

Like the Laws of Resonance and Rhythm, The Laws of Gender and Mutuality have an intimate relationship. Masculine and Feminine are not opposites but degrees of the same thing, Gender. In Cyprianism, the Virtues are considered Feminine, mysterious traits to reach for and explore to fulness. The Passions (Vices) are Masculine, always present and life giving while explored under the Watchful Eye that acts to circumscribe them.

It is important to strive for the harmony of Areté in your own Life as well as in your work. Understand where each element of your creation falls on this continuum and it will reveal itself. Then you will know how to encourage the relationships between elements to work together to create your masterpiece.

The frame of the poem is the phrase “I Am” which makes direct resonance with the Aspasian Letter “Be and become” where “be” is of the Masculine gender (the “inward facing” Passions of the Artist) and “become” is of the Feminine (the “outward facing” Virtues of a Courtesan).

Cyprian Calendar/Zodiac

Cyprian Calendar

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PleasuriaSeptember 4, 2017

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